Please, make starport's hologram in supercruise world oriented!

Agree with OP, it is a nice idea, I'd love to see it implemented - but...
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I would like to see a minor change to the orientation of the hologram generally. It is aligned with the ship's axis, which means it is not facing the pilot. I'd prefer it if the hologram was aligned to point in the general direction of the pilot's face, that way you have a clearer indication if you are pointing straight in to it. Useful when docking from miles out when dropping in at the back of a Wing or when sneaking in from a distance trying to avoid the feds.
 
My first thought was, the base is simply too long to be shown at a decent size from all angles...

Just scale it down. Problems?

EliteDangerous32 27-12-2014 22-51-40-801.jpg
 
For long time, aint even knew how about approach... with what speed, direction, nothing. It was totaly random for me, often tend to speed to much and missing station, resulting "Loops of Shame" many times.

But when earned hundreds of millions with Trade, learned on my own, that letterbox its usualy facing center of its orbit, and best "safe" speed its 0.06, anything less than will result "loop of shame" .... that knowledge came after trade runs with timer on, just litte thing that maked runs acutally not - brainmelting, and much more faster. Profit was not important, but time from one landing pad to another!


If you wanna be pro in docking, try in supercruise, at max speed, E-drop from sc into station. Good luck with "Aim & timing". Did it few times, best was 5km. I still wonder if possible to end up inside of station if done perfectly.
 
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For long time, aint even knew how about approach... with what speed, direction, nothing. It was totaly random for me, often tend to speed to much and missing station, resulting "Loops of Shame" many times.

But when earned hundreds of millions with Trade, learned on my own, that letterbox its usualy facing center of its orbit, and best "safe" speed its 0.06, anything less than will result "loop of shame" .... that knowledge came after trade runs with timer on, just litte thing that maked runs acutally not - brainmelting, and much more faster. Profit was not important, but time from one landing pad to another!


If you wanna be pro in docking, try in supercruise, at max speed, E-drop from sc into station. Good luck with "timing".

It's pretty simple once you figure it out. Aim at the station in SC and keep your throttle at 100%, and watch the countdown timer. When it's at 0:07 drop your throttle to the middle of the blue section and leave it there till it tells you the safe drop is ready. No more loops of shame. There's slightly faster ways to do it but you'll only shave off a few seconds (but they DO make you harder to interdict).

Not sure if it still works but you used to be able to drop your SC speed to minimum and get between 0km and 30km to the station before you drop and you'd either appear right next to the station, or inside it's superstructure.
 
That's nice. You're arguing with the lead designer of game, not me... you'd think he's know what he was talking about, would't you?

If the letterbox was always facing the planet, you'd always have to dodge the planet when you launch, wouldn't you? And yet 3 times out of 4 you can't even SEE the planet when you launch.

I'm afraid Michael Brookes might either be wrong, or we might be misunderstanding his words. See my post in the other thread.
I haven't seen Michael's post (could you dig it up for me please?) but I guess he could have said that stations are not facing the planet anymore, that is, not pointing straight at the planet anymore, but I'm afraid they are indeed always facing planets at the same angle despite what should be happening.

I will keep looking for evidence of stations pointing away from the planet, but so far in four months of playing the game I can't remember ever having to look for the entrance on the other side of the station when coming from inside its orbit, which is strange considering, as you said, unless some precise conditions are met their orbit should take them to face away at some point.
 
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It's pretty simple once you figure it out. Aim at the station in SC and keep your throttle at 100%, and watch the countdown timer. When it's at 0:07 drop your throttle to the middle of the blue section and leave it there till it tells you the safe drop is ready. No more loops of shame. There's slightly faster ways to do it but you'll only shave off a few seconds (but they DO make you harder to interdict).

Not sure if it still works but you used to be able to drop your SC speed to minimum and get between 0km and 30km to the station before you drop and you'd either appear right next to the station, or inside it's superstructure.


So it is, or was possible.

Yeah, since ive got it, always aproach from side of planet, along maintain good speeds, its like 99% letterbox side drops. Also depends in station orbits size and mass of planets, sometimes i go bit faster than 0.06, to then use gravity to slow down.
 
+1, this would be an excellent addition!

Also, if FD could make the 'Slow Down' alert appear before its too late to do so, that'd be grand.
 
If you want to have station well oriented, simply exit from supercruise between the planet and the stations, means, you have to have the planet in your back and station in your front, this way, tou will be always in front of the letter bow or so.

Except I've seen plenty of stations now that don't face the planet.
 
Hello there

I recently noticed that the "old style" dodec stations have an arrow on the hud pointing towards the letterbox.

I also do the get between station and planet thing, ive never knowingly come out of FS facing any other way than roughly head on, but I could be wrong...

It would be a nice touch to see the facing in FS but not vital IMHO.

Rgds

LoK
 
I'm afraid Michael Brookes might either be wrong, or we might be misunderstanding his words. See my post in the other thread.
I haven't seen Michael's post (could you dig it up for me please?) but I guess he could have said that stations are not facing the planet anymore, that is, not pointing straight at the planet anymore, but I'm afraid they are indeed always facing planets at the same angle despite what should be happening.

I will keep looking for evidence of stations pointing away from the planet, but so far in four months of playing the game I can't remember ever having to look for the entrance on the other side of the station when coming from inside its orbit, which is strange considering, as you said, unless some precise conditions are met their orbit should take them to face away at some point.

Interesting vid.. and although it's not conclusive it does appear to remain in the same position relative to the planet. Unfortunately I can find Michael's message about it... it was waaay back in beta so it's not surprising. However it logically can't be the case that stations always face the planet, or you'd always face plant the planet when you launch and the vast majority of times you don't even see the planet when you launch. Try it - pop out of ANY station and see if you're facing the planet... if not then coming at the station from between the planet and station simply isn't going to have you approaching the entrance. It only has to be not facing the planet ONCE to disprove the theory, and you'll find it actually disproves it more often than otherwise. It USED to be true in FE2 and FFE, and I tried it myself in ED several times and disproved it.

[edit] Just thinking about it for a sec... is it possible that when an instance spawns a station it sets it's position relative to the planet and that it remains constant while that instance remains? That would explain the conflict between what Michael told us and what you've observed.
 
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Interesting vid.. and I can't argue that although it's not conclusive it does appear to remain in the same position relative to the planet. Unfortunately I can find Michael's message about it... it was waaay back in beta so it's not surprising. However it logically can't be the case that stations always face the planet, or you'd always face plant the planet when you launch and the vast majority of times you don't even see the planet when you launch. Try it - pop out of ANY station and see if you're facing the planet... if not then coming at the station from between the planet and station simply isn't going to have you approaching the entrance. It only has to be not facing the planet ONCE to disprove the theory, and you'll find it actually disproves it more often than otherwise. It USED to be true in FE2 and FFE, and I tried it myself in ED several times and disproved it.

[edit] Just thinking about it for a sec... is it possible that when an instance spawns a station it sets it's position relative to the planet and that it remains constant while that instance remains? That would explain the conflict between what Michael told us and what you've observed./

I agree with you that the planet is rarely in full sight when you exit the station. However so far I can't remember it ever not being within 90 degrees of the station entrance.
I'll keep my eyes open and make screenshots when I leave stations, targetting the planet it's orbitting around so that i'ts pretty clear from looking at the navball where in relation ot the station entrance the planet is. In logic the planets should appear just as often as full blips on the navball as they should appear as hollow ones.
I can't say that is my experience of it so far, but I haven't kept any record. Will do from now on.
 
They definitely need to change this - exiting supercruise right into the back of a long station is clearly just an oversight. Also, for all the people saying it's fine because stations are always mostly facing the planet so at worst you'll come out to the side of them: that can also be instant death if it's a centrifuge style coriolis.
 
+1 OP

Also, there is a BRIEF time when entering the mailslot when it is obscured (you can't see the circle at the back). I would like to see inside all of the time for oncoming traffic, and to try and spy my pad. It is better than in the past, but it is still not quite right.
 
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